


no matter what happens (you are my light)

by EVIESDRAGON



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, JUST, THERE'S FLUFF TOO OK, angsty stuff :), mal has the venom symbiote, mentions of violence and fight scenes therefore rated mature, yes this is totally a venom au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:55:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22822909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EVIESDRAGON/pseuds/EVIESDRAGON
Summary: nothing to see, just a venom au that you probably didn't ask for but that you're getting anyway.(A MALVIE / MEVIE FIC)
Relationships: Evie & Mal (Disney), Evie/Mal (Disney)
Comments: 37
Kudos: 119





	1. 𝐨 𝐧 𝐞

_Mal wasn’t a morning person. At all. She had no will to get up from the comfort of her bed. To say she was used to wake up with a pillow in her face would be an understatement. Every single morning._

_“Morning, sunshine,”_

_“What?” Mal mumbled with her eyes closed, still. “I mean, yes, I’m awake,”_

_Any other person would get their ass kicked for waking her up like that, but everyone knew Mal’s rulebook never applied to her fiancée, Evie. Mal heard a soft laugh and blindly threw the pillow in the lovely sound’s direction._

_“Missed me,” Evie chuckled watching Mal roll on the bed to stare at her._

_“I’m awake!” Mal announced dramatically._

_Evie picked up the pillow and walked towards the sleepy purple haired girl._

_“Here, you can have it back,”_

_Mal was interrupted in the middle of a thank you as Evie hit her with the pillow, again, laughing adorably._

_“Ow, E!” Mal whined and laughed amused at Evie’s antics. She yawned, rubbing her eyes and sat up._

_“Oh, wow, you’re wearing a suit. Yes!” Mal smirked, finally giving Evie a good look. Her blue haired beauty was already up and ready to go, dressed in a regal blue suit. “I love it when you wear the suit!” Mal added with enthusiasm._

_“Thank you,” Evie smiled, her cheeks a little pink. “I have a very important meeting today. And hey, speaking of, let me know how your meeting goes.”_

_Mal blinked._

_“My meeting?”_

_What meeting? Mal clearly wasn’t awake enough to remember. Evie just raised an eyebrow at her. Ah. Right. That one._

_“Oh shit, yeah,” Mal scrunched her nose. “My meeting,”_

_Evie chuckled and handed Mal a mug. “Coffee,” She whispered before pressing a gentle peck on Mal’s lips, making her hum happily._

_“You are perfect,” Mal smiled, taking a sip. What or who would she be without caffeine?_

_“Right,” Evie rolled her eyes playfully. “That’s me,”_

_“Yes, you are. And does my perfect girl know what night it is tonight?”_

_“Date night,” Evie answered promptly with a smile, grabbing a binder from her bedside table._

_“Perfect,” Mal smiled, taking another sip of her coffee. “So, I’ll pick you up at, uh, around six and please do not forget your helmet,” She added with a grin. She loved driving Evie around town on her bike._

_“Oh, I’m glad that you like it,” Evie snorted. “Because I’m planning on wearing it at our wedding,”_

_Mal looked up from her coffee, watching Evie gather a bunch of papers and smiled, seeing the ring on Evie’s finger._

_“I know you’re joking but that’s hot,”_

_Evie winked at her with a chuckle, picking up her bag. “Feed the cat,”_

_“I will,” Mal nodded, watching Evie open the bedroom door, ready to leave. “I love you, E!” She called as Evie was already out the door and down the stairs._

_“I love you too, M! Feed the cat!” Mal heard Evie call back and a few moments later she heard the door open and close. Mal chuckled to herself and finished her coffee._

_\--_

_“Mal. Mal, wake up. Mal!”_

Mal gasped as she jolted awake.

“W-What...?” Mal mumbled. There was no way it was morning already.

_“Finally!”_

Mal blindly searched for her phone. Three in the morning.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” She groaned, tossing her phone away and burying her face back on the pillow.

_“Don’t ignore me!”_

“Every fucking night!” Mal protested, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Do you **ever** sleep?”

One would think this symbiote would let Mal sleep at this point, but no such luck. She felt jealous of literally every human being out there. Happily enjoying their average seven to eight hours of sleep. That could also be Mal, but no, Mal hadn't had a decent night of sleep in weeks. No sleep for Mal. No, sir.

_"I don't need sleep, Mal. I need food,"_

“It’s the middle of the night. Leave me the fuck alone. I was sleeping so well,” Mal mumbled, nuzzling into the pillow.

_“You mean the dream you were having?”_

Mal groaned again.

“Fuck off,” She frowned, thinking back to said dream. “I told you not to wake me up,” She bit her lip. “It wasn’t a dream…”

It was a memory.

_“If you’re going to cry, at least give me my tater tots while you’re at it,”_

Mal felt like the unluckiest bitch in the whole world. She got up, dragging her feet to the kitchen and fetched those tater tots, lazily eating them after a while. She heard a satisfied hum inside her head and not so long after, her very annoying symbiote was materializing itself from her back, manifesting itself as a miniature version of its head. Mal only rolled her eyes as it started to eat the tater tots by itself.

_“Are you feeling down, Mal?”_

“Don’t ask me stupid questions. Leave me alone. You got your food, didn’t you?”

_“Can’t I care about my partner?”_

Mal ignored the question. It had been weeks since her life went from normal to a big dumpster fire. From good to a whole mess. Sure, not everything was perfect. She didn’t particularly like her job as an investigative reporter but somehow she was good at it and so, she stuck with it. Until she poked around where she shouldn’t have and got herself an alien parasite up her ass. Sounds ridiculous, when put like that. However, long story short, that’s exactly what happened. She was hell bent on exposing the horrific work of a big business man who was covering up his alien experiments, calling it a space program focused on rockets and one of the aliens, who called itself Venom, found its way into Mal’s life. A life that was already going downhill.

“If you cared, you’d find someone else to annoy. Why did you pick me anyway? I’m just a loser,”

_“I picked the first human I saw. I stayed because you’re a loser. See, in my world, I was a bit of a loser, like you. Losers like us need to have each other’s backs,”_

“That’s the trashiest way of saying you like me or whatever,” Mal rolled her eyes and got up since the food was long gone already. “Will you let me sleep now?”

Venom took its place back inside Mal’s body and she plopped on the bed, yawning.

_“I do like you, Mal,”_

“Yeah, well, I never wanted this,” Mal groaned, her head hurting from the tiredness.

She heard a cooing sound and my god it was annoying.

_“Aw, don’t be bitter,”_ Venom snarled. _“We’re a team, me and you,”_

“There’s no you and me,” Mal snapped. “Shut the fuck up, let me sleep,”

She heard a grumbling sound of annoyance.

_“Then I guess you really are a loser. Because there’s no you and Evie either,”_

Mal bit the inside of her cheek so hard she could taste the blood in her mouth.

**Evie.**

Her beautiful, now ex-fiancée. Mal’s reckless behavior was common and Evie had warned her countless times that there were consequences to her actions. Mal never really cared until her screw up with the rocket man cost Evie her job and their relationship. Right after, Venom came into the scene and Mal was all over the place until she understood what was happening to her and how to control it. It only drew Evie away even more. Because Mal couldn’t just tell Evie she had an alien up her ass and expect her to believe such nonsense, could she?

“And whose fault is that?” Mal eventually growled, not wanting to go over the many ways her heart was hurting right now.

A beat.

_“Still you, Mal. Still you.”_

Mal simply turned on the bed, her tears spilling and falling on the pillow. It wasn’t like she could hide them or anything from Venom, anyway. The bloody parasite was right. She could’ve done things differently. She could’ve listened to Evie. She probably could’ve told her about Venom and she would’ve understood. But Mal did none of those things. She hugged herself, sniffling and hiding her face on the pillow, relieved that Venom had gone silent. Her life was such a mess. She lost her job. She pushed away all of her friends. She lost the girl she loved. She missed Evie so much.

Suddenly her mind was flooded with memories from their last date, before everything went to shit.

\--

_“I don’t know why he gave me this assignment, E,” Mal was telling Evie as they sat down at a restaurant Mal had picked for their quiet date night. “It’s not… It’s not what I do,”_

_“Well, my mother always told me that anything in life worth having would take sacrifice, patience and be a lot of work,” Evie replied with a calm smile, staring into Mal’s very green eyes. Mal was humming in response, marveled with Evie’s wisdom._

_“That’s you,” Evie then teased, making Mal snort. “That I’m talking about,” She then giggled._

_“Right, well, you’re lucky to have me,” Mal replied with a smirk. “To be fair, I’m quite a catch,”_

_Evie raised an amused eyebrow._

_“That’s what my mom told me,” Mal then added with a straight face but a look of mischief._

_Mal grinned, watching Evie burst into laughter and she thought it was the most beautiful sound in the whole world. Before she knew it, she was laughing too._

_“Are you going to behave yourself tomorrow?”_

_Mal went serious._

_“No. No, I’m going to do my job, E. That’s what I’m going to do,”_

_Evie frowned and Mal placed a hand on her cheek._

_“E, I can’t, you know, not do my job…”_

_“M, I know that firm defends people you might not deem worthy, but do we really want a repeat?” Evie replied softly._

_“A repeat?” Mal scrunched her nose._

_“Of the daily globe incident,”_

_“Ow! Really?” Mal gasped. “That wasn’t an incident,” She pouted._

_“Babe, you were run out of New York—“_

_“I was not, I did not!” Mal interrupted with an amused smile._

_“I don’t want you run out of San Francisco,” Evie pouted worriedly._

_“Hey,” Mal took Evie’s hand. “I still have currency in New York because I was going places. In fact, I moved to San Francisco for you,”_

_“For me?” Evie blushed._

_Mal nodded._

_“Evie, you are my home.”_

_Evie looked lovingly at Mal and cupped her face._

_“You’re not so bad yourself, dragon girl,” Evie teased before pressing her lips against Mal’s. “Less talking, more kissing.”_

_“Yes, ma’am,” Mal giggled. “Let me just get the check.”_

_\--_

From there the night only got better. Mal drove Evie back to the apartment they shared. They kissed, touched, and went all the way. If there was anything that got Mal to smile right now was how vividly she remembered how they fell asleep that night, in each other’s arms.

That was, until Mal fucked it all up. She clenched her jaw, remembering how everything went down, after Mal had accused the rocket man of experimenting on humans during the interview she was leading. Information she found by accident on Evie’s laptop. Because the firm she worked for had her work on a case involving that same man. Mal was fired right after but that wasn’t the thing that hurt her heart the most. More tears fell down her cheeks as the memory played in her head.

\--

_Mal was waiting for Evie at the entrance. She didn’t know how to break the news to her. That Mal had lost her job. She was practicing her speech in her head when Evie showed up. Mal frowned when she saw Evie walking out with a distressed look on her face and a box of her things in her hands._

_“E? Hey, talk to me, what happened?”_

_“What happened is that you’re stubborn as hell!” Evie snapped, her eyes filled with tears, stopping in front of Mal._

_“W-What? I don’t—“_

_Evie threw the box on the floor, in front of Mal’s feet._

_“What you did got me fired!” Evie’s voice cracked and Mal frowned, feeling the guilt weighting on her chest. She knew how seriously Evie took her job and how important it was for her. “You couldn’t let it go, could you? Just this once?”_

_“Evie…” Mal tried to reach for her hand but Evie pulled away. “E, I’m sorry,”_

_Evie looked down._

_“I know you are. But that won’t give me my job back. We can’t keep doing this, Mal,” Evie shook her head._

_Mal opened her mouth and closed it again._

_“Wait… E, what does that mean?”_

_Evie took off her ring. Her engagement ring. Mal’s eyes immediately filled with tears._

_“No… Evie, please,”_

_“I can’t do this right now.” Evie placed the ring on Mal’s hand, grabbed the box and walked away. Mal couldn’t see Evie’s tears but they were there. And it was her fault. It was all her fault._

\--

_“I’m really sorry, kid.”_

Mal heard Venom say and somehow she felt like her only company these days was actually worried for her and actually cared.

“It’s all my fault.” Mal whispered, devastated.

_“You know you can stop feeling sorry for yourself and go out there to get her back, right?”_

Mal shook her head, her vision blurry from the tears.

“No, I can’t. She would never believe me if I told her about you. And even if she did…” Mal shivered at the thought. “She’d… She’d think I’m a monster. She’d never come close to me again. She thinks I’m a complete fuck up but I’ll take that over her thinking I’m a monster. Plus… We’re dangerous. The last thing I want is for her to be in danger…”

The words of her former boss echoed in her mind.

**‘You know, for a smart woman, you really are a dumbass.’**

And the man was right. Venom was also right. She was a fucking loser and that cost her the only girl she ever loved.

//

Sleeping was not the only thing Mal had trouble with these days. After losing her job, it was hard to get a new one. It’s not like she could go back to being a reporter. She knew she had to lay low and the less people saw her, the better. One night, after she went out to buy food, this woman that worked for the man Mal had interviewed approached her. She was terrified of what he could do and expressed regret over working for him. She warned Mal that he was looking for the alien he lost and that he’d stop at nothing to get it back. Which meant Mal was in danger and so was Venom.

So now, Mal would only get out when necessary. To buy food and fill the bike’s tank. And both of those things only happened late at night. Except today, she decided to change it up a bit. Not seeing the sun was driving her crazy. Plus, it was one day. What harm could come her way? She pulled an oversized purple hoodie from a drawer and put it on, pulling it over her head, hiding her very prominent purple locks and headed out.

_“Why must you wear that ridiculous thing on your head?”_

Ah, shit, here we go again.

“Because,” Mal muttered as she walked down the street. “You couldn’t mind your fucking business when you saw me at that lab and now we’re both in danger of getting our asses handed to us,” She scoffed and shoved her hands in her pockets. “Now don’t talk to me, I don’t need people looking at me weird. Not more than usual, at least,”

_“If you had minded your own business, I would’ve minded mine,”_ Venom snarled.

Mal sighted. “I don’t need you to remind me of how I fucked up my life, thank you very much.”

She really didn’t. She did it all on her own. She stopped walking, the street unusually quiet and there wasn’t a soul in sight.

_“Ah, you couldn’t help yourself, huh?”_ Venom almost laughed.

Mal looked up from the floor to the building she used to live in.

_“I can’t believe I have to live in that dump when you had such a nice place,”_ Venom whined and Mal shook her head. Fucker, always in her head, poking at her memories.

“Stop it, get out of my head,” Mal grumbled and then frowned again. “I had to move out,”

Mal moved out from the apartment she shared with Evie the day they broke up. Mal didn’t deserve to live there anyway. She got out for a walk and ended up there, somehow.

“…Mal?”

**Shit.**

_“Outstanding! I get to meet her for real!”_ Venom gloated and Mal cursed at it under her breath.

She turned around to find Evie getting out of her car. When had she arrived and how did Mal miss the sound of a fucking car engine?

“Uh… Hi,” Mal mumbled nervously.

_“God, you sound like a school girl! Woman up!”_

Mal clenched her jaw, trying to ignore Venom’s remarks. Evie and her might be broken up but that didn’t stop Evie from looking at Mal with concern. They hadn’t seen each other since Venom crawled into Mal’s body and made a total mess of things. Mal felt a pang of embarrassment, remembering how she ended up inside a lobster tank at the restaurant Evie was having lunch at with their mutual friend, Harry. How suddenly, cooked food tasted disgusting and she ended up munching on those lobsters, to the surprise and disgust of everyone around, herself included. Harry was a doctor and even tried to help. Mal complied, only because of how worried and scared Evie looked. It went fine until the MRI they were trying to do made her entire body squirm in pain and she took off running. She ignored Harry’s and Evie’s calls from that day and decided the best thing was to stay away from both of them.

“What… What are you doing here? Are you okay? I haven’t… You never called me back,” Evie mumbled right back, walking towards Mal.

_“Oh, she so likes you. Tell her, Mal. Tell her the truth,”_

Mal couldn’t. Evie knowing the truth would put her in danger.

“I… uh… I know. I’m sorry…” Mal looked down. “I wasn’t—“ She pointed vaguely to the building next of them. “I wasn’t being weird or anything, I was just walking by and I… well I stopped… walking,” She was shifting from one foot to another; very sure this wasn’t making anything better.

Evie frowned. She missed Mal, more than anything and after she had time to really think about it, she realized her actions hadn’t been exactly right either. She wasn’t just calling to make sure Mal wasn’t sick anymore, she wanted to talk to her and maybe find a way back to what they had. But Mal had shut down and wasn’t making things easy.

“M, can we… talk?” Evie asked quietly.

_“She wants you back, Mal,”_

“I can’t,” Mal shook her head, replying to both Venom and Evie. “I wish I could explain but I just… I can’t, okay? I’m so sorry. I’m glad I ran into you, though.”

And with that Mal took off running, almost crashing into a street light pole, her vision blurred from how she immediately started crying and she only stopped running when she was back at her shitty apartment. She closed the door behind her and sunk to the floor, pressing her palms against her eyelids, sobbing quietly. Venom had the decency of leaving her alone whenever she cried and that was the one thing she was grateful for right now.

She tired herself out and ended up passing out on her bed until a knock on the door woke her up.

_“Do not open that door!”_ Venom warned.

“What? It’s probably just a prank or something,” Mal mumbled, still half asleep.

_“I mean it, Mal!”_

“Alright, alright, jeez,” Mal caved.

But it did them no good. A moment later, the door was being knocked over with a kick and three armed men walked inside. One of them pushed Mal, grabbing the collar of her hoodie.

“Stay put!” The men ordered, stepping back. Mal’s head was spinning but she was very much awake, right now.

“Hey, Mal,” Another man stepped forward, probably the leader of the trio. “I’m going to need Mr. Drake’s property back,” He said and all men pointed their guns at her, startling her and making her step backwards, almost tripping on the carpet.

Mr. Drake? Ah, yes. The rocket man.

Mal put her hands up. She knew how to throw a punch or two but what was she going to do against three armed men anyway?

_“What are you doing?”_ She heard Venom ask in an offended tone.

“I’m, uh, I’m putting my hands up, what does it look like I’m doing?” Mal replied, not caring that she looked like she was talking to herself.

She felt Venom take control over her arms and aggressively putting them back down and close to her body.

_“You’re making us look bad!”_

“Wha- No… I am… Not!” Mal protested, forcing her hands back up. This was so not happening to her right now.

_“Yes, you are!”_ Venom pushed her hands down again.

“No, I’m not, stop that!”

_“Why would you do that?”_

“Because they have guns, you colossal fucker!” Mal practically yelled. She was scared. They found her. She hadn’t realized how scared of that she was until that very moment.

_“God, you’re such a loser. I’ll take care of this myself.”_

“No, stop!” Mal begged. She knew what Venom could do but the last thing she needed was to get into a fight with Drake’s henchmen.

“Mal, where’s the bug?” The man tried again, his patience running out. Since Mal offered him no response, he nudged at the other two. “Take her down.”

In less than a second, the two men were shooting their Taser guns at Mal and she didn’t have time to dodge it. She felt the pain and the electricity coursing through her body for a few seconds until Venom took over, his arm involving Mal’s and pushing one of the men against the wall. Her other arm anticipated the other man that was going to charge against her and threw him up until he hit the ceiling and hit the floor with a big thud. Venom’s arms and legs kept shooting out of Mal’s own limbs and fighting off the henchmen that couldn’t possibly predict from where Venom would strike and honestly, neither could Mal. She was just the vessel in this whole thing, allowing Venom to fight for her until they were all unconscious.

“Shit,” She cursed, her breathing uneven.

_“Outstanding! Now let’s bite all their heads off and pile them up in a corner!”_ Venom yelped happily.

“Absolutely not! What have we discussed? No ripping heads off and no eating up organs and other disgusting things! Ground rules!” Mal whined, getting up from the floor and shaking.

_“Fine. You owe me tater tots and chocolate, though,”_ Venom complied dully. _“And we need to get out of here. There’s more of them and they’re coming!”_

“What? More?” Mal squeaked and clumsily dashed out of the apartment, trying not to fall as she ran down the stairs but more men in black and armed to the teeth blocked her. “Oh, no. Fuck,”

Venom took over and made Mal run to the nearest window.

“No. No, no, no, no Venom, please!” Mal screamed. She was terrified of heights and she knew what was going to happen.

_“Trust me, for once. I’m not letting you fall. You die, I die, remember?”_

It wasn’t like Mal could stop it anyway, so with that, Mal and Venom jumped out the window, breaking the glass. Venom stretched his arms to the walls and without anything other than Mal screeching in fear, they managed to hit the ground without a scratch.

But they weren’t safe just yet. More men and drones were coming their way, so Mal did the only thing she deemed possible. She grabbed her bike and took off at maximum speed. She would’ve loved the idea of feeling like she was in a Fast & Furious kind of adventure if she wasn’t carrying a parasite and wasn’t being held at gunpoint while driving through the city streets, avoiding cars, breaking every single rule ever created and performing impossible maneuvers, as Venom aided her. Venom wrapped itself around the bike and pushed cars out of the way, keeping Mal as safe as possible from the drones that were exploding all around her. So far, there wasn’t a scratch on her skin.

“Being chased by explosive drones and crazy men was not what I thought I was doing tonight!” Mal yelped as Venom ducked her head for her to avoid yet another drone. “Thank you!”

_“Me neither. You’re welcome! Focus we need to lose them!”_

It was a complete mess. They were leaving a trail of chaos and destruction behind them and just as Mal was starting to find this whole night chase maybe a little exciting, a car hit her on the side, making her fly from her bike and land violently on the floor. She groaned loudly, pretty sure half the bones in her body were broken.

“I’m going to die,” She whined, the pain fogging her thoughts.

_“You are not going to die,”_ Venom assured her.

A car stopped right in front of her and the lights were making her dizzy.

“I got her,” She heard a familiar voice. It was the man from before. He walked over and kneeled next to her as she winced in pain. “You have been a serious pain in my ass, Mal,”

“Well, you know…” Mal groaned while trembling all over, feeling number by the second. “I aim to please,” She’d laugh if she wasn’t in so much pain and sighted in relief when Venom took over, this time fully over her body, healing her very serious injuries and manifesting itself in its true form, shielding Mal and rising from the ground, grabbing the man by his neck and lifting him up many meters up. Mal felt like she had a suit on. Except the suit was alive.

_“Eyes, lungs, pancreas….”_ Venom counted, eyeing the now very terrified man. It was somewhat weird, hearing its voice outside of her head. It was even more guttural and well, alien like than she thought. _“So many snacks, so little time,”_

“Venom! We do not have time for this!” Mal growled.

_“Right,”_ Venom agreed and they felt a gunshot hit them from behind. With Venom protecting them, they were unscratched but it sure made it mad. Venom tossed away the man it was holding and against Mal’s very loud pleads, Venom turned to the man that shot them and bit his head off. Then, Venom took off. Mal didn’t realize how strong and fast that alien actually was until she was running away from that mess at a speed her bike could never achieve or jumping from building to building with the strength of the superheroes she liked to read about.

Venom then ran towards the sea and fully dove in, swimming as fast as it ran and emerged only when they were completely out of sight and hiding under the bridge’s massive metal structure. Venom fully retracted back inside, leaving Mal in charge again. She was trembling, soaked to the bone and still reeling on everything that just happened.

_“You alright, kid?”_

“Do I look like I’m fine? An army of men armed to their teeth and a fleet of explosive drones just chased me all over town! Plus, you bit someone’s head off,” Mal growled. “You broke the rules,”

_“What you wanted me to let them harm us?”_ Venom protested.

“Fine, fair point. Whatever,” Mal rolled her eyes and leaned on the cold metal. “I didn’t know you could do that,”

_“We did that,”_ Venom corrected. _“We’re a team. And we can do whatever we want, Mal,”_

Mal sighted, feeling more and more scared by the second.

“And what… what do we do now?” Her voice was quiet.

_“If we want to survive, we need to take down Drake,”_

Mal closed her eyes. “How do we do that?”

_“I don’t know, yet. But we’ll figure it out,”_

Mal tried not to cry. She was so scared. And Venom couldn’t blame her for that.

//

“So ah was lookin’ at the exams we did get on Mal the other day,” Harry’s thick Scottish accent was heard through Evie’s phone.

“Yeah?” Evie replied as she drove home.

“Ye need tae get ‘er here,” Harry warned. “Everything inside her is acting weird. Ah’ve never seen anything like it before,”

“Are you sure?” Evie sighted, with a frown. Sure, Mal looked completely lost but she didn’t look sick anymore. “I, uh. I saw her today. She didn’t look sick,”

Harry mumbled something that Evie couldn’t understand over the sudden loud sirens and she spotted way too many cop cars and ambulances driving past her. She almost felt sick. They were all going in the direction of Mal’s building.

“I’ll call you back,” Evie hung up on Harry before he could protest and turned around, following the cars. She didn’t even park the car right and ran off on foot, her heart pounding hard against her ribcage. It definitely was Mal’s building. The area was limited my yellow police tape and she stopped right in front of it.

“Officer, what’s happening? I need to get in there! It’s my f- my friend’s apartment,” Evie anxiously asked the first uniformed person that walked by.

“The building’s been evacuated. It’s not safe for you to be here, ma’am,” The officer explained. Evie frowned. “Get off the streets. Go home,” The officer advised. “There’s bodies all over the city tonight.”

Evie’s blood ran cold.

“… **Bodies?** ”

The officer was long gone, though, attending to the matter in cause.

Evie ran a hand through her hair and bit her lip. The thought of the girl she obviously still loved being out there hurt, or worse make her feel sick to her stomach.

She had to find Mal.

**“My god, Mal, where are you?”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I lost it and pulled this chapter together in the last two days after reeling on this AU for MONTHS on end. And I have zero self control so imma post it RIGHT NOW.
> 
> That's it. I hope it's not trash. It follows the movie but at the same time it doesn't, I just did my own thing.
> 
> Let me know what you think?
> 
> :) x


	2. 𝐭 𝐰 𝐨

Mal could hear the sound of the sirens booming across town as she power walked, away from prying eyes, with purpose. She shivered some, her hoodie and her hair still soaked and almost jumped when she felt her phone buzzing inside her pocket. How that thing was still working, Mal wouldn’t know.

“Shit,” She cursed as she took her phone out and saw the caller ID.

_“Your pulse has quickened,”_

Mal ignored the mocking tone coming from Venom. Of course her heart did a back flip.

“You know, this would be so much easier if you weren’t in my head all the time,” Mal grumbled. “What I’m feeling right now is exactly the type of thing that is none of your goddamn business,”

_“Wrong. Everything of yours is my business, Mal,”_ Venom replied calmly. _“We have no secrets,”_

“Yeah? Well, then you know exactly why I’m going here before we do anything else,” Mal rolled her eyes as they kept walking. The buzzing of the phone died out and started again. Mal gulped. She couldn’t pick up the phone.

_“Sure. I’m not unreasonable.”_

As the phone kept buzzing, Mal looked at Evie’s beautiful face for another second and against her better judgement, she picked up the call.

“Yeah?” Mal breathed out and her heart threatened to shoot out of her mouth upon hearing Evie’s voice on the other side.

**“M, thank god! Where are you? I need to see you,”**

Evie sounded so worried and honestly, Mal could not blame her. She figured Evie was aware of the chaotic pile of bodies Venom had left behind after her action movie like moment. Mal wanted to see Evie, more than anything but she was in so much danger that even talking to her right now was risky.

“No, no,” Mal shook her head. “You can’t see me,” She said shakily.

**“Mal Bertha, I need you to tell me where you are. I’m coming to get you,”** Evie insisted and Mal started to panic even more, shaking her head at Venom’s stupid mocking little grunt. She knew that tone so well. She knew better than to argue with Evie when she got like that but on this day, she had to.

“No, E, you can’t come anywhere near me. You can’t come near me right now!” Mal practically squeaked and hung up before Evie could protest, putting her phone away and looking into the glass doors of the building in front of her.

_“Why don’t you just tell her the truth?”_

“Because the truth will get her killed and I’d die a thousand times before I’d let anything happen to her. I thought you knew everything about me, jeez,” Mal breathed out, walking inside the building where one of the only people who tolerated her worked.

“Jane! Hey, Jane!”

Jane immediately stood up from her desk shaking her head.

“No—“

“Jane, I have to go up there,” Mal swiftly cut her off, stomping inside.

“You know you’re not supposed to be here, Mal,” Jane protested, walking over to her friend.

Mal stopped as Jane stood in her way.

“Look, I can’t explain it Jane but I have to go up there,”

“Mal, you know I love you. But I can’t let you do that,” Jane shook her head again. “I’m sorry.”

“Okay, okay…” Mal sighed, looking around. “Can you just give him this?” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and extended it to Jane. She still had all the information and all the dirt on Drake on her phone. “He needs to see what’s on this,”

“Mal, please,” Jane put her hands up. “I really need this job.”

_“Oh my god, Mal, let’s just eat her brains!”_

“No! You do not touch her, she’s my friend!” Mal growled back at her stupid gross parasite.

“Mal, what’s wrong with you?” Jane asked with concern but Mal wasn’t listening.

“You’re a parasite, not a zombie!” Mal argued annoyed.

_“I’m not a parasite! You take that back!”_ Venom grunted, offended.

“Mal—“ Jane tried again.

“It’s fine, we’re leaving!”

_“We? Now it’s we?”_

“Shut the fuck up,” Mal grumbled, walking out the door, leaving a very confused Jane inside the building lobby.

Mal sighed and looked around. She thought telling her former boss about the dirt she had on Drake would be a good start. Maybe he’d listen to reason and help take Drake down. But she had to get up there.

“Shit.”

_“You want up?”_ Venom asked.

“No, Venom. I walked inside that building because I wanted to buy a Care Bear plushie. Of course I want up!” Mal rolled her eyes. “Seriously, you’re only in my head when you want to annoy me,”

_“We’re stuck together, I need to have some fun,”_ Venom snarled. _“But if you want up, why didn’t you just say?”_

The absolute last thing Mal wanted was to be faced with heights again. She weighted down her options. She could give up on her last minute plan. However, there was at least a small chance her former boss would listen. And if there was any chance of this nightmare being over… Mal had to take it.

She reluctantly let Venom take over her body again, in what she’d call the **‘suit mode’** and allowed him to climb all the way up the immensely tall building. Venom laughed amusedly at Mal’s fearful screeches and her alien partner only stopped climbing when they were all the way up, on the very top of the building.

_“Hmm… It is peaceful up here,”_ Venom said.

“Maybe for you, I’m not very good with heights,” Mal promptly disagreed.

_“Oh, I know. I’m just saying. Maybe your world isn’t so ugly after all,”_

And maybe Venom had a point, Mal realized. Under Venom’s protection, being so far up that she couldn’t see the ground, didn’t feel as scary. The night had barely begun and the city lights were indeed pretty. For a second there, Mal let herself appreciate the view. When would she ever get to see such a pretty sight again? If she were to be successful in getting out of this situation alive, she’d sit down to draw it.

Right. Her situation.

“This is great but we have a job to do,” Mal reminded Venom.

_“Where to?”_

Mal never thought she’d be jumping in and out so many windows. She found herself breaking yet another window as they jumped inside Mal’s former boss’ office on the eight floor.

“Again?” Mal grumbled, shaking off pieces of shattered glass from her clothes and her hair. “You’re going to get me killed,”

_“You die, I die, remember?”_ Venom reminded her.

“Oh, quit it,” Mal rolled her eyes, walking over to the desk. “I know you can always just shed my carcass and exchange it for another one whenever you need,”

_“You offend me. Why would I do that?”_

“Well, why wouldn’t you?” Mal insisted as she found a piece of paper and a pen and started scribbling a message on it. “If I were an alien parasite like you, I’d keep bouncing around,”

_“I am not a parasite!”_ Venom growled. Mal ignored it. _“Anyway, you’re far too good of a match to just throw away,”_

“Hmm, am I now?” Mal nodded to herself at the piece of paper.

“Yes. I like you, Mal. We’re not so different, you and I,”

“So I’ve heard.” Mal clicked her tongue in annoyance as she almost cut herself on a piece of glass on the table as she finished writing the words **‘DO THE RIGHT THING, SHITHEAD!!!’** on the paper. She drew an arrow and placed the phone right next to the paper.

“Okay… Here’s your evidence.” Mal looked out the window, exhaling deeply.

_“Jump.”_

Mal widened her eyes. That shit was not going to happen again, no sir. No more jumping off windows or buildings. No more jumping off anything. Mal shook her head, stomped out of the room and walked over to the nearest elevator, pressing the button a bit aggressively.

_“Pussy.”_ Venom taunted her.

Once again, she ignored it as the elevator moved. At least that went well, somehow. Not everything had been shit that day. Or so Mal thought. She almost rolled her eyes, as the first thing she saw as soon as she stepped out of the elevator was a new army of soldiers, armed to their teeth, again and pointing their guns at her. She now had at least two dozen of red pointers aimed at her chest. They had helmets on, with cameras on top, protection glasses and from the look of it, they were all cops.

“Hands!” Mal heard one of them yell. Impossible to tell which one but she raised her hands nonetheless.

“On the ground, now!” She heard another voice. Mal just sighed and she surprised herself, realizing she wasn’t scared. Well not that scared, anyway. These men were all doomed. Venom wouldn’t have any mercy on them.

“Guys, you do **not** want to do this, trust me,” Mal warned them.

She wasn’t expecting them to listen. They didn’t, as she predicted.

“Mask!”

“Copy!”

All of them geared up with masks over their faces and Mal shrugged.

“All right, have it your own way. Mask!”

_“Copy!”_ Venom complied, taking over her body and for the third time that night, Mal had her alien suit on.

As soon as that happened, everyone just started shooting at them, which did nothing to Venom.

“What is that thing!?” Mal could hear the men yelp and they immediately passed on to plan B, aiming their big gas pistols at them. After a second of hesitation, one of the men shot his. Venom caught the bullet with its hand and crushed it. The gas started to spread and soon enough Venom was catching another one with its mouth, crushing it as well.

Mal could hear the men yelling at each other, the gas rendering them unable to see properly. Venom took advantage of that and from that point on, Mal was just a spectator.

Venom started to attack each of its victims from the comfort of the hiding spots the gas was providing. Venom grabbed them, throwing them against the walls with maximum strength, trampled them when they weren’t looking and pushed them aggressively, jumping and dodging all the attacks coming their way.

A bunch of men blocked their path and Venom simply stretched its arms, disarming every single one of them and throwing their heavy weapons against them. Mal had been too scared the first time around to really appreciate how cool it was that she had an alien suit with insane fighting skills. Well, she was still scared for her life but she had to admit she felt a little powerful, even if she wasn’t really doing those things.

_“Enjoying ourselves, are we?”_ Venom teased, throwing another man against a wall.

“Hush,” Mal huffed. She was though and Venom knew it.

The men that were still standing started throwing flash grenades at them, which forced Venom to jump all the way up to the rafters and jumping from one to another to avoid this one thing that actually inflicted some sort of damage on it.

“Throw it at them!” Mal suggested as they dodged another grenade.

_“Smart.”_

Venom ripped off part of a rafter and threw it down with its full strength, stopping the chaotic display of gun shooting happening down there. Mal knew it; the fight was almost over.

_“Let’s finish this!”_ Venom yelped before jumping back on the ground and taking down the few men still standing without mercy. As they all fell, unconscious or worse, Venom roared in celebration of their victory, the powerful sound echoing in the building.

There was one man standing, Mal realized. Well, not standing. Conscious, on the ground blindly shooting at them, having no success at harming them. Venom grabbed him and opened its mouth, growling viciously. And that’s when it hit her. These men were all probably dead. It wasn’t just Venom doing these things. It was Mal too.

“No! We do not eat policemen!” Mal growled angrily, her levels of fear rising up again.

And if that didn’t do the trick, the scream that was heard next almost had Mal passing out. They turned their head to see Evie peeking from a corner, paralyzed with fear. Mal wanted to drop dead and it made Venom drop the man they were holding to stare back at her.

_“No more running.”_ Venom announced and Mal started panicking.

“No, Venom stop! Stop!” Mal yelped but it was too late, Venom had retracted entirely inside her body and Mal had to watch Evie process the fact that she was under the alien suit. The thing that Mal feared the most had happened and she didn’t know how to process it.

“W-What the hell is that!?” Evie practically screamed in fear but not moving from her spot.

Mal didn’t try to move either, knowing any movement would startle her. She wanted to explain everything but the thought of Evie thinking she was a monster clouded her judgement. Suddenly her legs were jelly, completely giving up on her and she fell on her knees, shaking and crying.

“Fuck, that’s not me,” Mal shook her head, convinced she was talking to herself. That Evie had already left. The tears ran down her cheeks and she didn’t try to wipe them. “It’s inside me. I didn’t- I never asked for this.”

Mal was surprised when a gentle hand lifted her chin up. Evie had come closer and kneeled down in front of Mal, looking at her with concern.

“Mal, talk to me,” Evie gently asked. She looked confused. But she didn’t look unsure anymore.

Mal felt a wave of relief coursing through her body. At the very least, Evie didn’t hate her. Evie didn’t leave.

“E, I’m- I’m really scared,” Mal sobbed. The downfall of her Venom induced high was hitting her like a brick wall. She was excited for a second over the adrenaline that fighting like that gave her but the hard truth was that she was being chased relentlessly by god knows how many different people and they would kill her without a second thought just to get the alien back.

Evie placed a hand on Mal’s cheek and she felt really bad for immediately leaning into her touch. She didn’t deserve it. She knew she looked and sounded crazy. She looked exhausted, scared, she was drenched in sweat and tears and her hair was sticking to her cheeks.

“C’mon. Let’s get you out of here before anyone else shows up,” Evie whispered.

Mal shook her head, sniffling.

“I can’t- I can’t come with you. It’s not safe,”

“Do not fight me on this, M. C’mon let’s go.” Evie sternly replied.

_“I like her. Go with her.”_ Mal heard Venom say.

Mal just looked at Evie. She was already there. Of course she was, Evie was relentless and she would’ve never stopped until she found Mal. And she already knew. She caught Mal right in the act. Mal knew that going with her would put her in even more danger but she was tired of being so alone that she ended up letting Evie help her up and guide her into Evie’s car.

There was a bit of silence as Evie drove and Mal sat on the back seat, unsure if she should open her mouth.

“Can I take you to see Harry? Just so we can make sure you’re okay?” Evie broke the silence, looking at Mal from the rearview mirror.

“Sure,” Mal nodded. What else was she going to do anyway?

“We’ll do another MRI,”

_“No! No MRI’s!”_ Venom protested and the sound startled Mal a bit. Venom had been quiet for a while as well.

“No,” Mal shook her head. “No MRI’s,”

“What? Why?” Evie wondered.

_“Sound at four thousand to six thousand Hertz is lethal,”_ Venom explained and Mal sighed realizing she had to actually repeat everything Venom said because Evie couldn’t hear it.

“The sound frequency in the MRI is really harmful for Venom,” Mal explained to Evie.

“It has a name?” Evie asked and Mal detected a hint of curiosity in her voice.

“Yeah. It’s Venom.”

Evie nodded.

_“Venom here, nice to meet you, darling,”_

“Hush,” Mal grumbled quietly.

“So, sound is like his kryptonite?” Evie’s voice was both a little curious and very gentle. Mal really, really loved this woman. This was impossible to digest and yet Evie was being understanding and patient with her, even after what she just witnessed.

“Something like that. Not all sounds, though—“

_“And fire,”_ Venom added, cutting Mal off.

“Oh, and fire too,” Mal voiced out.

Evie made a turn and looked at Mal again.

“Venom’s… talking to you?”

“Always,” Mal nodded, looking out the window but had to look back at Evie when her voiced came out again, quiet and more worried than ever.

“Are you in pain?”

“No,” Mal shook her head and that seemed to ease Evie’s mind. “I don’t feel anything, actually, other than… I’m hungry all the time,” Mal explained.

_“And you feel sad; do you not, Mal, when you’re with her?”_ Venom wondered.

“Get out of my head,” Mal sighted defeated and she could feel Evie’s eyes on her.

_“You never really apologized. We don’t really know what’s going to happen. You might not live to get another chance.”_

Mal hated to admit Venom was right. Everything looked so gloomy and so hopeless right now. She had no idea of what was going to happen to her. She couldn’t possibly know if she’d ever see Evie again after tonight. She gulped and gathered her strength to address all the screwing up she did.

“…E?”

Evie looked at Mal. “Yeah?”

“I just… I just want to say that whatever- whatever happens, that I am truly sorry for whatever I… and, everything I have ever done to you,” Mal looked away. Her eyes welled up in tears and she blinked them away before looking back at Evie, who was giving her the most intense look. “I am truly, truly sorry, E,” Mal continued. “I love you. I hope you know that.”

“Oh…M,”

“You don’t- you don’t have to say anything,” Mal shook her head. She was ready for rejection; she just had to say it. “I just—“

**“I love you too, M,”**

_“Aw, that’s nice,”_ Venom cooed amusedly and Mal felt her whole body on fire. She opened her mouth and closed it again, sort of like a fish, trying to get words out but her brain wasn’t working. **Evie still loved her.**

“We’ll go back to this, alright?” Evie then said. “I promise. Now, let’s keep you alive.”

//

“Thank you so much for coming, Harry,” Evie said when their Scottish friend walked inside the hospital room.

“Mal, ah’m sorry,” Harry said, looking worriedly at Mal.

“What?” Mal wondered.

“Mal, ah got yer labs back and yer heart is- and the rest of yer body too,” Harry started.

_“Do not listen to him! We’ve been over this!”_ Venom protested. Mal knew it. No one had been on her side when she was infected so she did her own research.

“Wait what does that mean?” Evie asked.

“Ah’ve never seen anything like it before, ah dinnae ken if ah can fix it,”

_“You know I can heal you, don’t listen to them!”_ Venom kept protesting.

“Is Venom killing her?” Evie insisted, demanding answers and poked Mal’s chest, clearly addressing the alien. “You’re killing her,”

Mal shook her head, overwhelmed by everyone talking at the same time.

“Shut up, all of you!” She protested, silence reigning in the room, at last. “I know,”

“Ye know?”

“Venom might be an alien parasite—“

_“I’m not a parasite!”_ Venom screeched in her ears.

“Shut up! I’m talking now,” Mal growled. “Like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, it’s still a parasite. It needs a host to survive. Apparently, I’m a good match, so we’re in symbiosis and therefore even though in any medical exams it might look like I’m dying but I’m not. Venom uses my body to stay alive but it also keeps me alive in exchange for being its host. That’s how it works.”

Both Evie and Harry looked surprised by the new information.

“How do ye know all this?” Harry wondered.

“I did my homework,” Mal shrugged. “No one else was going to do it for me. It’s been weeks and I’m not dead yet, so I guess I wasn’t too far off,”

Harry didn’t seem convinced. In fact, he looked terrified. He walked over to Mal.

“Ah’m sorry, Mal but we need to get ye to the ICU, we don’t have a lot of time—“

Venom lost its cool just then, unwilling to go through another battery of exams or anything else that could hurt the both of them so he stretched out its arm, through Mal’s to keep Harry away from them, aiming for his neck.

“Bloody hell!” Harry yelped.

“No, stop Venom! He’s my friend!” Mal screamed but Venom wasn’t listening.

_“We need to get out of here!”_

“I’m sorry, Harry!” Mal begged, as Venom didn’t seem to want to slow down.

Evie froze for a moment before looking over to the command panel next to next and pressing the button that would initiate an MRI scan.

“Oh, god, don’t do that!” Mal groaned but it was too late. The scan had already started and the frequency that usually wouldn’t hurt her was now ringing in her ears in the most painful way. She covered her ears, to no avail and screamed as her whole body trembled. Her balance was so off she almost fell to the ground.

“Make it stop, make it stop!” She screamed and she felt like she was going to pass out from the piercing sound, until suddenly the pain was gone. Venom, in a desperate attempt to escape the pain, jumped off Mal’s body, pushing her to the ground. Harry quickly trapped Venom inside the MRI room and Evie ran to Mal, kneeling down.

“M, are you alright? I’m so sorry, I had to get it out of you,” Evie rambled worriedly as Mal groaned.

“What is that?” Harry asked, his eyes wide as Venom, now reduced to a puddle of black goo, jumped around the room, trying to find a way out.

Mal clumsily got up, still dizzy from the sound that she could still hear inside her head and walked over to the glass door where Venom was attached.

“You almost killed my friend!” Mal angrily spat, pressing a finger to the glass. “We had rules! What happened to ‘we’, huh? What happened to ‘we’?”

Evie and Harry just stood back.

“Yeah, look at you now. Now you’re dying. We’re done!” Mal slammed the glass with the palm of her hand and turned her back on Venom, walking past Evie and Harry.

“Wait, where the hell do you think you’re going?” Evie protested, chasing after Mal.

“Anywhere but here, E. Anywhere but here! I’m tired!”

“Right and don’t you think we have a bit of a problem in our hands!? Mal!” Evie called but Mal was already out the door, stomping through the hospital hallway. Evie sighed. There was no use in chasing Mal like that. At least she was free of the alien. She’d catch up to Mal in a bit, to let her cool off.

“Ye want tae tell me what the bloody hell is going oan?” Harry demanded, still shaken up from what just happened.

“I mean, I do. But I don’t know much more than you do, Harry,” Evie shook her head.

“Then what do we do about that?” Harry pointed to the glass door and Evie followed his action. Her blood ran cold when she realized Venom was nowhere to be found.

“Harry,” Evie slowly walked over to the door and pressed her hand against the cool material. “Where is it?” She whispered.

**“Oh, no.”**

//

In the meanwhile, Mal had been clumsily turning corners and walking down flights of stairs, trying to find her way out of the hospital.

“Fuck this stupid hospital… This is a labyrinth… What a fucking nightmare,” Mal grumbled to herself as she turned another corner and then came to a stop.

An elevator.

“Oh, thank fuck,” She whispered and pressed the button, shifting from one foot to another impatiently.

Her bad luck streak wasn’t over though. When the elevator doors opened, she was greeted with the same man that had been chasing her since the beginning of the night, in the company of three more. He wasted no time in shooting a taser bullet at Mal and this time she had no energy to dodge or to fight back and no alien to save her. She groaned as she was projected to the ground, falling and blacking out a couple of seconds later. The faint sound of the man’s voice was the last thing she heard.

“Mal, Mal, Mal…”

//

Evie felt bad for leaving Harry alone but she had to find Mal. She couldn’t have gone too far. She didn’t have a car and was missing the alien. She have had to be exhausted. Evie figured she could still catch up to Mal if she ran fast enough.

After several minutes of looking around the hospital halls and peeking into rooms, Evie turned a corner and was met with a dog. The little pup was just sitting there in the middle of the hallway. Evie would’ve ignored it had this been a normal night for her. But she just had a hunch and therefore, stopped on her tracks and stared back at it.

The dog’s eyes glowed in a weird way, confirming Evie’s suspects.

“Venom,” She whispered.

The dog stared at her some more and somehow Evie could feel what Venom was trying to tell her. Her heart sank to her gut.

“… They got her?” Evie asked, a little out of breath.

Venom had the dog nod, ever so slightly and Evie bit her lip.

“No… Mal…”

Venom stared at her again, more intensely this time. Evie was a smart woman; it didn’t take her long until she realized what that meant. She just wasn’t sure she was up to the task.

“Do you want me to- you know…” Evie pointed at Venom and then at herself. Venom nodded again.

“Shit,” She cursed under her breath.

She wasn’t sure this was the best idea. Or the safest. Safe wasn’t a word she could use right now, if she was being honest. But they had Mal. She was in real danger, in the hands of ruthless men and she was back to being fully human again. They were surely going to hurt her, trying to get information out of her. Evie had to get her out of there.

“Alright…” Evie nodded slowly. “I can’t believe I’m going to do this…”

Venom took a few steps forward but Evie held out a hand and shook her head.

“Not here, you idiot! Not where people can see you. Follow me.”

If anyone thought it was weird that Evie had left the building with a dog that wasn’t hers, no one cared enough to say a thing. She felt the cold night air in her face as she walked away from prying eyes, Venom always closely behind.

**“I’m coming, Mal. I’m coming to get you.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya!
> 
> Chapter two of this crazy thing I'm doing! It's a lil bit shorter than chapter one but it's for a reason. I wanted to end it in that specific spot so I can dive in to the next part without having to end it at a weird place. That's all. A bit more of Malvie, a bit more of Mal and Venom and a bit more of Harry. Thank you so much for the nice response this is getting!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy and see you next chapter! :) x


	3. 𝐭 𝐡 𝐫 𝐞 𝐞

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW // BLOOD
> 
> TW // MENTIONS/DESCRIPTION OF A STAB WOUND

The sound of boots stomping on the floor that rang in her ears. Hard light on her face that make her groan. That’s how Mal somehow returned to consciousness. With heavy eyes and blurry vision, she tried to move but realized she was tied up to a chair. Her head also hurt, from the fall. Maybe she had a concussion. She wouldn’t know.

“You can kill me… Because I’m dying anyway,” She mumbled weakly, knowing she wasn’t alone in the room, her vision clearing out more. The man that had been chasing her walked over and leaned down to her height.

“I’m not just going to kill you. That wouldn’t be any fun,” The man snarled with a twisted little sick smile and leaned even closer, almost like he wanted to spit in her face. “No, no, no. I’m going to rip your tongue out of your face—“

He never got to finish because Mal took advantage of the closeness and harshly head-butted him, making him stumble back and groan in pain.

“ **Whoo!** ” Mal howled mockingly, now fully conscious and a little proud of herself for making that asshole mad.

The man growled, his nose bleeding already and he charged like a bull in her direction. He was about to grab Mal by her collar when another voice interrupted him. It was Drake, the Rocket Man himself.

“Stop, you’re bleeding all over my lab. Go. Go!” He ordered and his henchman turned his back on them and left, growling and grumbling without another word.

Drake walked over to Mal, looking at her for a moment before stepping away slowly.

“Where is it?”

“I don’t know,” Mal shrugged and she was being honest. Venom was probably long gone from that MRI room. She just knew it. “And you know what? Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you anyway. Because you know,” Mal made a face. “I don’t trust you and you’re insane,”

Drake placed a hand over his heart.

“That hurts,” Drake replied but he didn’t seem offended at all.

“Sorry, I guess?” Mal shrugged. She wasn’t.

“Long journal entry about that tonight,” Drake continued. “You’re being dumb, Bertha, I’m not insane. What’s insane is the way humans choose to live today,”

Mal squinted.

“Must I sit here and listen to you make your big bad villain speech about how you think you’re the good guy in this whole scenario when we all know that’s bullshit?” She rolled her eyes.

Drake ignored her remark and kept talking, unfortunately.

“Think about it. All we do is take, take, take. It can’t go on. We’ve brought the planet to the brink of extinction. We’re parasites. You’re a good example,”

Mal only snorted. It’s too bad Venom wasn’t there to be utterly offended by that. Mal couldn’t believe she was missing that stupid alien.

“Think about it. All you do is take. You took my symbiote—“

“It took me, thank you very much,” Mal interrupted.

“You take potshots at a great man trying to get something done—“

“Who might that be?” Mal almost laughed. That man was completely out of his mind.

“Aw. Didn’t you take from the person you loved the most, who trusted you the most? That’s insane,“

Drake kept talking about how he was the pioneer in creating a new species. But Mal wasn’t paying any real attention anymore. All she could think about was what Drake had just said. The asshole was right, wasn’t he? Mal did take from the person she loved most. And now she was also in danger because of Mal. She frowned. She was a complete and total disaster. There was no way Evie would come back to her. Mal didn’t deserve it.

“…Man and symbiote combined—“

“ **Shut the fuck up or so help me god** ,” Mal cut him off harshly. She was fed up with him. “Let me tell you something, buddy, alright? Because I have spent a significant amount of time, you know, with one of these creatures **up. my. ass.** It’s not a lot of fun. They rip heads off for breakfast—“”

“This is the last time I’m asking you, where’s my symbiote?” Drake’s face twitched in anger and Mal was almost proud that she was getting to him.

“I have no idea—“

Mal had no time to feel embarrassed at how loud she screeched as Drake was suddenly replaced by a whole fucking alien, just like Venom. It was pretty scary to see that transformation happen and she could now totally understand how Evie felt when she saw Venom.

**_“Where is he!?”_** The alien yelled in her face. **_“WHERE IS VENOM?”_**

****

“Oh my god!” Mal leaned as far back as she could in that chair, as she smelled its disgusting breath. “That is the ugliest-looking thing I have ever seen!”

The ugly alien roared angrily before retracting back into Drake’s body. Drake didn’t look to pleased either.

“You know, Bertha, I have no use for you.” He spat before he turned his back on Mal and walked away and outside the room.

“Treece! Come and clean up your mess!”

Mal exhaled harshly and closed her eyes.

“Whoa…He has one up his ass… too.”

//

Drake walked over to one of his many labs, the dim light being his only company. His initial plan was turning into something bigger and if he was being honest, a bit out of his control. But he didn’t really care at this point.

“The others. Your friends. I apologize, I tried to save them, I tried to keep them alive,”

His own alien manifested itself outside of Drake’s body so they could see eye to eye.

_“There are more of us. Millions more. They will follow wherever I lead,”_ The alien said, taking a good look at his host.

“Where **we** lead,” Drake corrected.

_“Yes. We. But first we must retrieve them.”_

Drake nodded, “I can take care of that.”

//

Mal felt cold. Of all the ways she thought she could die, getting shot in the middle of the woods at night wasn’t one of them. She could see her breath as she walked, with Drake’s henchmen on her tail with their guns ready for action.

“Yeah, what are you going to do, walk me to death?” Mal couldn’t help herself. Everything just felt so surreal, so ridiculous to be true. And yet, it was.

“Shut up.” Treece warned and pushed her to keep walking. “Not so tough without your friend, huh?”

Mal took a few more steps before stopping and turning around to face that sad, sad little man who was now pointing his gun at her. He was nothing more than Drake’s lap dog.

“Did your mama not love you?” Mal snarled and while his face twisted with anger, Mal tried to disarm him, again trying to take advantage of being so close to him. Except this time she didn’t have Venom to aid her and her fighting skills weren’t enough to go through with it. Treece easily pushed her back and into the ground and angrily kicked her in the stomach. She groaned a bit and looked up from the floor standing on her knees.

“I guess it pays to be a specialist, huh? You know it really doesn’t matter if you kill me now because there’s something way bigger afoot in this world than you and me.”

Mal believed her words. What was happening was bigger than them. If Drake had an alien with him, then things were about to escalate. But she was also stalling and she knew it. It didn’t matter how tough her act seemed, Mal was scared of dying. She’d die right there, in those woods. Unable to atone for her mistakes. Unable to say goodbye to the woman she loved and tell her how incredibly sorry she was. All alone. She teared up, which seemed to please Treece. It didn’t matter that he saw her cry. All that mattered was that right now, she had no way out and Evie’s last memories of her were of a selfish, cowardly woman who had an alien parasite up her ass. A loser.

She blinked her tears away and she had to do her best to keep her poker face on, as she saw one of Drake’s men being pulled away without a sound.

**Venom**.

“Much, much bigger than us…” She had to stall for just a little longer.

As she saw another man being taken, she couldn’t help but to laugh. Venom was now sneakily approaching Treece and Mal was visibly gloating. She had never been happier to see an alien in her entire life.

“Karma’s a bitch.” Mal grinned.

Treece seemed confused.

“I don’t believe in karma.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” Mal literally giggled as Venom pulled Treece away from her.

“Oh! Ooh! Fuck!” Mal yelped as Venom proceeded to bite his head off and throw the body away.

Mal then finally took a good look at Venom. For it to be in its real form, it had to find a good host.

_“Hi, Mal,”_

She could hear it. And see it. **Oh, no.**

“Whoa…No way,” Mal whispered and stuttered a bit as Venom pulled her up by her collar. “What are you—“

Mal was interrupted by a kiss. It felt incredibly weird at first but Mal couldn’t stop herself because she knew exactly who was the host and she had been longing to kiss her again for way too long.

She could feel Venom crawling back into her body. And as it did so she started to fully feel Evie’s lips on hers. **Fuck** , she missed Evie. Mal hummed and Evie smiled a little into the kiss. They pulled away slowly and for a moment, nothing around them mattered. Until Evie gasped.

“Oh, no…” Evie whispered a little panicked. “I just bit that guy’s head off,”

“Uh...yeah I’ve been there too, it’s not fun,” Mal placed her hands on Evie’s shoulders. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about. “Hey, are you okay? Fuck, you shouldn’t be here—“

_“The one with Drake is Riot!”_ Venom was back in Mal’s head and unapologetically interrupted her. She knew there were more pressing matters but she just wanted to talk about that kiss.

“Who is Riot?” Mal questioned anyway, never taking her eyes off Evie.

_“Riot is what you would call a team leader. He has an arsenal of weapons.”_

Seeing Evie’s confused expression, Mal shook her head.

“Drake has his own symbiote,” Mal explained.

_“He’s unstoppable.”_

“Oh, great.” Evie sighed.

_“We have got to go!”_ Venom yelled.

“What? Where? Where are we going?” Mal squeaked. She felt like Venom already knew more than she did and she wanted to know more before rushing into anything at all.

“Wait, I’m coming with you!” Evie insisted.

_“No! It’s going to get ugly!”_ Venom warned.

“Well, she can fight ugly. Trust me.” Mal protested. Mal was not going to leave Evie alone.

“Yes, I can fight ugly.” Evie nodded.

Venom grunted and took over Mal’s body.

_“Not today!”_ Venom said and easily took off running.

“Wait, Venom!” Mal yelled but it was no use, she wasn’t in control of her body.

Evie just stared at them and scoffed.

“Oh, that’s bullshit!” She yelled, but she knew they weren’t listening.

She had to do something to help, so she also took off running. She knew exactly where to go.

//

Mal still wasn’t used to how fast Venom could move. They were still in the woods but they were so far away already that Venom decided to retract back into Mal’s body, giving her finally enough control to stop running.

“Stop! Venom! What the fuck was that? We just left Evie! What if something happens to her? We—“

_“It is not safe for her!”_ Venom protested as Mal came to a stop, trying to catch her breath.

“And you think it’s safe for her to be out in the woods alone?” Mal countered in the most aggravated tone ever. “Since when do you care about Evie’s well-being?”

_“You care. Do you not?”_

“Of course I care! I love that woman.”

_“Then I think that if we do not stop Riot, it will come back with millions more of my kind. Evie needs to stay away from the mess,”_

“Millions? I- Wait, wait, wait,” Mal raised a hand. “You knew about this, didn’t you? You **knew** that because you came here with this exact purpose. **You** were going to take that rocket too and come back here with a fucking invasion force!” Mal practically yelled in anger and Venom’s silence was more than enough for her. “Great. That’s just great. Bloody fantastic! Then what were you going to do, you were going to go feed on a whole planet?”

_“Well. Yes. Have you not seen me eat people or?”_

“Venom!”

_“Alright, I’m sorry! But it’s different now, Mal. You know that. You know I have decided to stay—“_

“Wow!” Mal snarled. “Well that solves all of our problems, doesn’t it?”

_“You don’t get it. Do you remember when I told you I was a loser back in my home planet? Well, here we could be more,”_ Venom tried to reason with Mal as she started walking again, stomping her feet in anger. _“And I’m getting to like it here,”_

Mal only scoffed but she knew that if Venom truly wanted to harm her or the planet, they wouldn’t be having this conversation. She was still bitter about Venom’s initial plan to eat an entire planet and the fact that she was marching into death after leaving Evie behind like that.

_“You know I’m right. And there will be nothing left to like if we don’t stop that rocket,”_

“You know it’s really fucking funny that when it comes to being completely annihilated,” Mal scoffed as she started to see the lights and the silhouette of the rocket in front of her. “Then it’s back to **we**!”

_“It is we. Like it or not it is going to take both of us,”_

Mal stopped.

“Hey, you know what? Cut the bullshit, Venom. What really made you change your mind?”

Venom took over Mal’s body as they both stared at the rocket from the safe distance of the woods. There was a bit of silence before Venom spoke again.

_“You. You did, Mal.”_

Mal didn’t think she was special enough to win over some alien’s heart (did it even have one? Mal wouldn’t know) but alas, that’s what she was hearing. She said nothing but it’s not like it was necessary. Right now, what really mattered was to stop the rocket launch. So, they marched towards it.

_“I can feel Riot,”_ Venom said.

“We’re not too late, are we?” Mal wondered as they ran towards the structure and started climbing it.

Mal never got an answer because suddenly Riot busted out of a window near them, roaring into the night. Riot was literally destroying the structure as it moved and Mal felt a pang of fear.

“Oh, fuck!” Mal yelped as Venom ducked to avoid being seen. “You can take this guy, right?”

Venom peaked from their hiding spot.

_“Riot has got shit you’ve never seen,”_

“W-What does that mean? What are our chances?” Mal questioned feeling a little dizzy.

_“Hmm,”_ Venom paused. _“Pretty much zero.”_

That was to be expected. Of course the bad alien was much stronger than them. But someone had to do something right? Chickening out right now wasn’t going to change the fact that maybe, Mal and Venom were the planet’s only hope.

“Oh, fuck it,” Mal scoffed. “ **Well, let’s go save the planet.** ”

Venom jumped from their hiding and started chasing Riot through the structure until they caught up with it. Venom landed right in front of Riot, standing in its way.

_“Venom! Get in the rocket!”_ Riot ordered.

_“No! We won’t let you destroy this world.”_ Venom growled threateningly.

_“…Then die!”_

Riot barely gave them time to react, charging at them with its full strength and morphing its arms into ginormous blades.

“Holy shit!” Mal yelped as they dodged a hit, barely.

_“I told you.”_ Venom warned as both aliens got up.

_“You have a strong host,”_ Riot admitted. _“But not strong enough.”_

As Riot prepared itself for round two, Mal’s head was full.

_“Do it for her.”_ Venom said.

**“Do it for Evie.”** Mal repeated.

Yes. If Mal was going to risk her life like that, it was definitely going to be so the woman she loved was safe.

//

It was complete chaos all around Evie. People were giving her confusing looks as they passed by her. Evie was running towards the danger while everyone else was trying to avoid it. She didn’t exactly know where to go but she knew what she was looking for. The control room. There had to be a way of helping Mal in there. She stopped for a second to look around and nodded to herself seeing the entrance. The massive number of people with coms and white coats running in the opposite direction gave it away.

“There it is…” Evie whispered to herself and started running towards it.

She could feel the entire building shaking as she scanned the room, now empty because everyone ran away trying to stay safe. It was mainly all destroyed or scattered around the floor or both. Some of the screens still worked though.

**‘T-Minus two minutes and thirty seconds.’**

Evie was a bit startled by the mechanical voice booming through the room and looked at the very broken window.

“Shit, the rocket…”

She heard a loud metallic sound echoing in the distance and gasped at the monitor in front of her.

Mal and Venom were fighting Riot and it was barely understandable who was who but she figured the smallest blur was them. Mal was struggling to keep up with Riot’s movements, being thrown around and hitting the metal joints. Riot them pulled Venom, pressing it against the floor with its weight and started pulling at its head with its massive claws. After a few seconds of pulling, Evie could see Mal’s head.

“Mal!” Evie yelped. “Oh my god, Mal…”

Mal looked in pain and yelled something Evie couldn’t quite understand from just looking at the screen. And Evie was scared, every part of her body was shaking. The woman she loved was in danger, in real danger. Riot managed to pull Venom in its entirety, holding the gooey black parasite in its claws and pushing Mal to the ground.

“No…Mal, get up…Get up, please…” Evie teared up watching Mal like that and was so relieved when Mal moved. She got up and stretched out her arm until it touched Venom. Suddenly the alien was back and Venom charged against Riot, pushing the both of them into a different metal platform. It was a complete mess, both aliens and hosts sort of mixed up, trying to fight each other and basically glued to each other.

“I have to do something…” Evie was so stressed but she knew Mal and Venom wouldn’t be able to hold Riot like that for much longer. Her palms were all sweaty as she cracked her knuckles nervously watching as Riot took in Venom and grew at least five sizes. Then it started climbing the rocket. “No, no, no, Mal!”

Evie desperately looked around and searched shakily for something, anything.

Then she smiled. The communication system. She could easily emit a certain sound frequency at full volume. That would hurt Venom as well but she had to take a chance. Riot won’t see it coming and it will slow it down. She messed around with it and pressed the button, looking back at the screen almost immediately after.

**It was working.**

“I told you I could fight ugly.” Evie smirked.

She could see both aliens struggling and vibrating, just like it happened to Mal in the MRI room. Venom struggled to free itself from Riot, so Evie raised the frequency, making it possible for Venom to break free.

“Kick its ass, M.” Evie whispered, cleaning the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve.

Mal had to win. She just had to. Because Evie wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something happened to her.

//

Mal’s head was pounding from the noise but she couldn’t help the butterflies on her stomach. She knew damn well that high frequency sound was Evie’s doing. That was good news because it meant she was alright. The bad news were that they were now falling off the rocket. She felt Venom protect her as she hit the metal platform, being pushed aside right after.

**‘T-Minus one minute.’**

“Shit…” Mal mumbled to herself, trying to get on her feet but unfortunately, for her, Drake had also fallen next to her.

Mal was barely on her knees as Drake punched her in the face making her fall on her back, groaning. She shook her head and kicked Drake’s body with both feet as he charged against her, allowing her to get up. The platform wasn’t too big, and there was only water at the bottom of it. It was so easy to fall. Drake got up as well but Mal was not going to let him win. She ran back to give her a head start and as Drake came in her direction, she jumped, punching him midair with her full strength. She got him right in the face and the inertia made Drake fall and roll until he was at the edge of the platform. He looked down for a second before his eyes settled on Mal again.

“You’re too late,” Drake said with a crooked smile. “This is the next stage—“

Mal didn’t wait to hear the rest as she kicked him off the platform and waited until she heard the splash of the water below her.

“You talk too much.” Mal spat.

She turned around. She had to find Evie and Venom and stop the launch of the rocket, somehow. She took a few steps forward until her train of thoughts was interrupted by the impact of a huge blade that trespassed her body, making her gasp for air. She looked absolutely terrified at the blade coming from her chest, fell on her knees, feeling numb, and hot from the blood dripping and soaking her clothes. The world around her was spinning but she could see, although very blurry, the culprit.

Riot stood right on top of her. So, that’s why Drake was talking so much.

_“You are **nothing!** ” _Riot growled at Mal before he roared and jumped up, probably finding its way to the rocket, leaving the blade carved in Mal’s chest.

Mal couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak. Could barely think. The pain was overtaking her and she could feel her brain shutting down. Venom was gone. And Mal had lost.

The fight. Probably the war. **Mal lost Evie.**

If she could cry, she would. If she wasn’t fading away, faster by the second, she would cry for all she still hadn’t done and would never get to do now. For wasting her life doing something she wasn’t passionate about. For not being worthy of the woman who loved her and trusted her the most. Who had been her light in spite of all the darkness Mal sometimes carried with her.

Mal knew this could happen. She knew she could die. But that didn’t mean she was ready for it. What pained her the most was that she did her very best to keep Evie safe and failed. Now she was laying on the ground, completely alone and unable to fight anymore. And she couldn’t say goodbye to Evie. Mal would never see her again and that was hurting her more than the gigantic wound in her chest.

It’s Evie, the last thing on her mind as she closed her eyes and blacked out.

And it’s Evie who finds her, after recklessly leaving the room she was in to look for Mal. Mal doesn’t hear the gut wrenching cry that came from Evie’s chest as she kneeled next to Mal’s body and realized Mal was probably not going to wake up. She cupped Mal’s face with shaking hands, her vision blurry from the tears.

**Had they really lost each other?**

She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around to see Venom.

“S-She’s—“ Evie’s couldn’t find it in her to say it. “Y-You have t-to do s-something.” She begged shakily. Venom had to save her. It just had. 

Venom couldn’t speak in that gooey form but it slowly crawled into Mal’s body and Evie stood there, praying to every god that Venom could save Mal.

**“I love you, Mal. Please, please come back to me.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY GUYS!
> 
> Ok, so now that you've reached this note, I'm sorry for the pain I might have caused. I just wanna say y'all won't ever get an unhappy ending from me and there's one more chapter left in this story. I just hadn't written real angst in a while and hey, yer angsty demon is back ksdjhksfs
> 
> See you soon :) x


	4. 𝐟 𝐨 𝐮 𝐫

The next few moments felt like an eternity for Evie. Venom crawling into Mal’s lifeless body. Evie didn’t know if that would work. Could Venom bring back someone like that? Her chest tightened even more as she kept on holding on to Mal’s hand. The fact that it was cold as ice made Evie restless and it brought chills down her spine. Not in a good way.

“Come back to me, please come back to me…” Evie whispered over and over again.

Evie nibbled on her lower lip nervously as the wait was for sure killing her. How just mere seconds weighted down on her like she had been waiting for days now was unbearable and the way that weight was crushing her chest was making it really hard to breathe.

As long as it seemed to go without a single sound, which wasn’t true, as the deafening sound of the rocket getting ready to launch was present, just not to Evie in that moment, Evie had hope. She had to hold on to hope. And finally, the angst-filled moment was over as Mal’s eyes snapped open and she gasped for air, sitting up. Then, Mal locked eyes with Evie for a second before Venom took over her body to protect her from being hurt by the blade that was still carved in her chest. A second that seemed to last for ages.

Mal felt all kinds of weird. She was sure she was not going to make it. She blacked out for real and there was not going back from it. Well, apparently when you’re friends with an alien parasite, those rules stop applying. And now she was staring into the eyes of the woman she loves when she thought she would never see her again. Evie looked scared and relieved at the same time and Mal just wanted to hug her and kiss the daylights out of her. 

_“We must stop the rocket now.”_ Venom remembered.

The last thing Mal wanted was to leave Evie, yet again, especially after she saw Mal in that state. But if they didn’t stop the rocket now, there would be nothing left.

“I know,” Mal sighed.

Evie knew it too.

“Just come back to me. Please…” She whispered.

_“I’ll bring her back. I promise.”_

Venom pulled the blade from their chest, roaring into the night and jumped up. The rocket was launching and the window to catch up with it was small so Venom crawled up the metal structure as fast as possible and jumped again reaching the rocket. Mal sort of felt like that last jump happened in slow motion but maybe that was just because she still felt a little funny from literally dying and coming back to life.

Venom landed on the rocket on top of the window Riot used to crawl inside and soon enough only the glass was separating them.

“Don’t let go, Venom!” Mal screamed over the deafening sound of the rocket engines.

_“I won’t. Trust me, Mal.”_

_“Traitor!”_ Riot grunted from inside the rocket.

_“Have a nice life!”_ Venom growled back.

“Wait, what are you going to do? Venom!” Mal asked alarmed by the tone of that statement.

_“I’m going to let go.”_

“You just said you wouldn’t!” Mal squeaked. “I already died once!”

_“And I promised I’d bring you back, Mal. I intend to keep that promise.”_

“You better!”

Venom grunted as they let go of the rocket and started what would be a huge fall. Mal tried not to scream as she watched what Venom was doing. The blade that once was fatal to her was now their weapon. As they fell, Venom carved the blade into the fuel tank and the blade slashed the entire propulsion system as they kept on falling. The rocket immediately exploded in different places, each explosion bigger than the other.

“Venom!” Mal yelled, realizing they were right in the middle of the blast zone and were for sure going to be hit by either debris or by an explosion.

Mal felt Venom concentrating itself on her front and she could see her own body again.

“Venom, what are you doing!?” She yelled into the night.

_“Goodbye, Mal.”_

“Wha- No, Venom!”

Venom expanded itself, protecting Mal from the biggest and last explosion and as its body burned, Venom still managed to push Mal further down and their bodies were no longer together. Mal closed her eyes and ended up falling into the water. It was a bit of a shock but Mal somehow managed to swim up and emerged from the water, gasping for air.

“Fuck…” She whispered, moving her arms and legs, trying to stay at the surface of the water and looked around, at the chaos. Pieces of the rocket were still falling and floating around her, some of them still on fire. She would probably freeze if she stayed there any longer so she started swimming, trying to find a way out, luckily for her, some boats were there already, trying to put down the fires, and in no time, she was being pulled into one of them.

As she was being offered a hot beverage and a blanket to stay warm, she closed her eyes for a bit. She was alive. She made it out. Venom saved her. Venom kept the promise. But Venom didn’t make it and Mal frowned. As annoying as it had been, that alien did care for her and for Evie and had their backs until the very end.

As soon as the boat arrived to safe port, Mal jumped out of it and ran to find Evie.

Evie.

Evie had been escorted out of the platform where Mal and Venom left her and was now, nervously waiting in the outskirts of the premises. There were cops and firefighters all around her. Mal had to come back. Venom promised. She just had to. Evie couldn’t bear losing Mal all over again.

“E! Evie!”

Evie turned around hearing her name and sighed in relief seeing Mal running towards her.

“Mal!” Evie got on her feet and ran to meet Mal, throwing her arms around her. “Mal, oh thank god!”

Mal was soaked to the bone and now had enough material to write a goddamn book but she was alive. She held Evie tight as she bursted into tears in Mal’s arms. And honestly, Mal just wanted to cry too. So, cry she did. And that’s all they did. They cried all over each other until they couldn’t anymore.

They were just glad they were both okay and in each other’s arms. How long they stayed there? Who knows. They weren’t counting.

//

It was funny how life worked. Mal didn’t think she’d be near that building ever again but there she stood, sitting on the entrance stairs, with her head on Evie’s shoulder.

“Thank you,” She whispered.

“Hmm?” Evie looked over at Mal, one arm protectively around her.

“Thank you for saving me and sticking with me during…all of that mess,” Mal replied softly, Evie’s presence really relaxing her. Mal’s presence seemed to do the same for her.

“How do you feel? After all this?” Evie inquired.

“I feel…good. I guess?” Mal shrugged. “E, what are you going to do? About your career?” She asked worriedly.

“I’m not sure yet,” Evie confessed. “But I have something in mind; I’ll fill you in later. What about you? What are you going to do?”

“Uh, the network asked me to bring the show back,” Mal hummed. “They want to start with a piece on Drake,”

“Yeah?” Evie smiled. “So, what did you say?”

Mal shook her head slightly.

“I’m not into it. I’m going to concentrate on the written word for now, but I have something else in mind too,” Mal smiled some, maybe a little lost in thought.

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Oh,” Mal smirked playfully. “It’s a surprise.”

Evie chuckled softly and then looked back at Mal.

“Hey, I’m sorry about Venom,”

Mal smiled and looked up at her with curious eyes.

“Want to tell me about that kiss?”

“That—“ Evie blushed. “Was your buddy’s idea, actually,”

“Is that so?” Mal giggled amused and poked Evie’s cheek. “Don’t worry, I’m just teasing,”

Evie rolled her eyes, “It did feel kind of great, though,” She added with a shrug. “You know…”

“The power?” Mal finished for her with a gentle smile. “It’s okay, E. No need to feel weird about it,”

Evie nodded and they stood there for a bit, in silence, just enjoying each other’s presence.

“I thought I lost you…” Evie broke the silence and her voice came out quiet. Vulnerable. Mal realized they never really talked about that and how gruesome and traumatizing it must have been for Evie.

“I’m sorry… I can’t imagine—“

“No,” Evie shook her head, sounding shaky and out of breath. “You can’t. You were dead, Mal,”

Mal shifted in her spot to cup Evie’s cheeks and frowned seeing her eyes filled with tears.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Mal caressed her cheeks with her thumbs, trying to soothe her. “E, I’m right here,” She tried to speak as softly as possible not to startle her. “This is all my fault. I’m so sorry, E… For all I’ve put you through. I’ve been such a bad… Everything. And you don’t deserve it. On top of this, you saved my ass and stood by me. You deserve better—“

“No,” Evie sniffled and leaned into Mal’s touch. “Stop saying that. Mal, I should’ve acted differently,”

“I got you fired, E. Because I never listen,” Mal shook her head.

“You did and I was mad at you for not listening,” Evie agreed. “But after you left I just…M, I had time to let it sink in. I don’t even like what I was doing—“

“Don’t tell me I did you favor,” Mal shook her head again. Evie could be all kinds of unbelievable and Mal loved what she was doing but she didn’t want to run from her problems. “I want to be held accountable for the shit I put you through, don’t throw loopholes at me,”

Evie brought a hand up to grab Mal’s hand and lace their fingers together.

“You’ve been through more than enough, M. I held you accountable already. And it sucked because we could’ve handled things differently,” Evie blinked some to get rid of the tears. “The fight over my job, everything…None of that mattered when I saw you like that. When you told me how scared you were. When I found you… I just wanted you back. I want you back, M. That’s what I wanted to tell you that day, when I found you here but you never gave me the chance,”

Mal just stared at Evie, a little surprised. Was it possible that Evie wanted Mal back for real?

“You said… You said you loved me in the car, that night…I- I didn’t want to think much of it because I was scared it was just my imagination,” Mal confessed. “You…Did you really mean it?” There was a lingering vulnerability in Mal’s voice and in her eyes. She looked like a child, full of innocence.

“Yeah,” Evie nodded, tracing soft patterns on Mal’s hand with her thumb. “And I promised we’d finish that conversation. This is it. M, after everything that’s happened I really just want to be with the woman I love and that’s you. I was ready to forgive you before everything escalated. I do forgive you.”

Mal stayed silent for a bit, taking in her words and relaxing under Evie’s gentle touch. She was ready for Evie to not want her back. Well, she wasn’t ready but she was trying to make peace with it. To hear Evie say she just wanted her back was probably the best thing that happened to her in the last weeks. And fuck, she wanted Evie back too. More than anything.

“E, I missed you so much…” Mal admitted, sounding so incredibly emotional. “I kicked myself for being less than perfect for you and that’s all I want to be. I want to be with you and I want to give you the entire world,”

Mal shoved her free hand into her pocket and took out the ring than had been resting on Evie’s finger ever since Mal popped the question.

“This world is shit. It’s dark and cruel. But **no matter what happens, you are my light.** Will you be mine again?” Mal whispered the question with a hopeful glint in her green eyes, holding the ring in between them.

Evie eyed the ring with fondness and smiled at Mal before leaning in to place a soft kiss on her lips, something Mal welcomed with open arms. A gentle kiss. Easy, peaceful, nothing but the unconditional love in between them. Mal actually giggled when they pulled away.

“I’ll take that as a yes?” Mal grinned.

“Yes, of course, you dork,” Evie chuckled.

Mal rejoiced as she gently placed the ring back where it belonged. In Evie’s finger. Mal watched Evie’s cheeks turn pink and smiled. It looked like she was proposing for the first time all over again and that reminded her of just how lucky she was to have Evie.

“I love you, E,” Mal said, placing a kiss in Evie’s hand.

“I love you, M,” Evie grinned and then looked up. “I won’t stand for you sleeping in that tiny apartment anymore. Please move back to our home?”

“Gladly,” Mal smirked. “Tell you what; I have most of my stuff in storage, if I run there now I can start bringing them back home and maybe have it all here by tonight?” She added with a giggle.

“Sounds perfect,” Evie said. “Call me when you get there?”

Mal leaned to peck her lips and nodded.

“Will do.”

Mal then started walking, turning back to blow a cheeky kiss at Evie, making her laugh and her heart felt warm. She greeted one of their neighbors and heard a little grunt.

“Right,” Mal sighed. “Thank you for keeping quiet,”

_“You’re welcome. Are you not going to tell her?”_

“I am. I was,” Mal nodded. “But I don’t think that it was the right time to tell her that my dead alien buddy isn’t so dead after all. It’s a lot, alright? When we come back, I’ll tell her,” She explained as they walked past a woman and her dog. “To be completely honest, I think she knows already. She knows me too well,”

_“What is that? That thing looks delicious,”_ Venom asked suddenly not interested in what Mal was saying.

“Look, I have absolutely no problem with you sticking around but if you do, you have to remember the rules we talked about the first time around, alright? Ground rules,” Mal rolled her eyes as she walked down the street and turned a corner. “You can’t just go around eating anybody that you want to,”

_“I can’t?”_

No, you can’t,” Mal groaned. “We’ve been over this a million times, Venom,”

Venom only grumbled and Mal shook her head.

“Alright, we need to…We need to reiterate this. Listen to me; there are a lot of good people in this world, a lot of them. And then there are bad people. You have to tell the difference,” Mal figured she probably looked insane as she walked and moved her hands around while talking but she was in such a good mood that some weird looks were not going to ruin it for her. “The deal is, you will only ever be allowed to touch, harm, hurt, possibly, very possibly eat, very, very bad people. But never, ever, ever, good people. Alright?”

There was a moment of silence.

_“Fine,”_

“Good,” Mal nodded to herself, proud of her reasoning skills.

_“But does one tell the difference?”_ Venom inquired.

“Well, it’s super simple,” Mal started, even though she soon figured it wasn’t exactly that simple at all. “I mean, you just have to…you can intuit it, you can sense it. Sometimes you can even feel it,” She offered, hoping that made sense to Venom.

_“Whatever you say,”_ Venom replied. _“But can we get something to eat now? Otherwise, you liver is starting to look really, really good and juicy,”_

“Fuck off,” Mal rolled her eyes and then sighed. “I know a place down here. But first, my stuff. I promised Evie.”

_“Fine, fine.”_

//

There was a time Mal genuinely thought her life was not going to get any better. She sort of smiled to herself as she parked her bike in front of the little store around the block. Three months later and her life was better than ever. Evie and her were finally making solid wedding plans. Both women changed entirely their professional field. Evie was working in fashion while Mal found herself making a living out of something she enjoyed to do in her free time. Drawing. Art.

Evie was not surprised at all that Venom had survived after all and had found its way back to Mal.

_‘We had a bonding moment!’_ , Venom had gloated that same day. _‘I’m winning her over, I can feel it.’_ Venom added just to make Mal growl and grumble.

Even so, life was pretty fucking great. Mal wasn’t complaining. She walked into the store, asked by Evie to get some groceries while she finished a commission.

“Hey, Mrs. C!” Mal greeted with a smile.

“How you doing, Mal?” The woman greeted her back with a gentle tone.

“I’m great, thank you for asking,” Mal grinned.

_“Tater tots and chocolate, Mal,”_ Venom remembered.

“Fine, I know. But I will not spend the rest of my days living off those things,” Mal warned.

She was eyeing the shelves when she heard another voice coming from the store entrance.

“Payment’s due, Chen!”

Mal froze in her spot and listened.

“Please, I can’t keep doing this,” Mrs. Chen replied shakily. Mal peaked from her spot just in time to see a man pull out a gun and pointing it right at the lovely lady, who always had a kind smile and kind words to offer Mal.

“Now!” The man insisted.

_“Bad guy, right?”_ Venom guessed.

“Yep.” Mal mumbled.

Venom covered Mal’s body and approached the scene, grabbing the man’s arm and twisting it so hard he dropped the gun. Venom took slow, steady steps towards him, ignoring Mrs. Chen’s surprised face.

_“You come in here again…No, no, in fact, you go anywhere in this city, preying on innocent people and we will find you and eat both your arms and then both of your legs—“_ Venom grunted in a threatening tone.

“No we won’t, but continue to threaten the bad guy,” Mal corrected.

The man only trembled in fear.

_“And then we’ll eat your face right off your head. Do you understand?”_

“What did I say about biting heads off, Venom?” Mal grumbled.

“Please…” The man whimpered.

_“Yes,”_ Venom continued, ignoring Mal’s remarks. _“So, you’ll be this armless, legless, faceless thing, won’t you, rolling down the street like a turd in the wind? Do you feel me?”_

“W-What the hell are you?”

“Glad you asked.” Mal laughed.

The man trembled even more as Venom showed him half of Mal’s face under its own and they both smirked at him.

**_“We are Venom.”_ **

****

Venom protected Mal again and sort of smirked.

_“On a second thought…”_

Mal didn’t really had it in her to stop Venom from biting his head off. The fucker earned it, to be honest. After the job was done, Venom retracted back into Mal’s body and she cracked her back.

“Mal? What was that?” Mrs. Chen asked, not as scared as Mal thought she’d be.

“Oh,” Mal turned to the lady. “I have a parasite. Yeah. Night, Mrs. Chen.” She swiftly walked out of the store so she didn’t have to answer any questions.

_“Parasite!?”_ Venom growled at Mal, sounding very offended.

“Yeah,” Mal snorted. “It’s a term of endearment, that’s all,”

_“Apologize!”_ Venom demanded.

“Hmm, no,” Mal cackled.

_“Apologize!”_

“Alright, fine,” Mal giggled, delighted she had this one thing against her buddy. “I’m sorry,” She sighed. “Okay, now what do we do? I can’t go back in there obviously.”

Venom snorted.

_“The way I see it, **we** can do whatever **we** want.”_

Mal only laughed. Then laughed some more, cuddled with Evie that same night.

Turns out a happy ending was indeed in the cards for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!
> 
> Final chapter of this thing! God, I know it's shorter than the others but it all semms very organic and I adapted this whole thing to fit these characters the best I could. I feel like I did them justice. I really came out of my comfort zone to write this one so, I hope that the ride was worth it. Thank you so much for all of your support, it's really so appreciated.
> 
> Until a next one. Much love to everyone and stay safe!!
> 
> :) x


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